User talk:Ministryofinformation

Note that the 'University History' section of the Lancaster University website, sometimes used to verify statements made in Wikipedia pages, is not an 'official' publication. It was produced as an undergraduate project by two students in 2002. Without wishing to criticise their work, much of it is best-guess, personal interpretation and extrapolation, so cannot be treated with the status of absolute, verified proof.

I know this because I provided technical support on the project, as I am the University's web designer/editor; I am named on the acknowledgements page.

The site is under review, and should be overhauled within the next few months. --Ministry 15:54, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for providing certain proof: I'm sure you are aware of No Original Research and such on wikipedia. It's good to see people who work as the web editor for the university who can be more certain (and contact more people to check information) than I am that the Lancaster pages on Wikipedia are correct. I hope you understand why I reversed this fact, until I saw sufficient evidence.

May I be the first to say: Welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you enjoy your stay! (I'm sure someone will come along with a better hello message ;) 9cds 18:50, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, and thanks for your scepticism!

I'd better state here that though my job might provide access to certain information, my involvement in Wikipedia is solely as a private individual. I'm not here as an official representative of Lancaster University. --Ministry 15:04, 20 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Better restate that, as I've just made a few strictly-factual amendments to the University's page: I do not edit Wikipedia content on behalf of my employer. Ministry (talk) 13:02, 15 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I ceased to be an employee of Lancaster University in late 2018, so it's probably legitimate for me to make wiki edits on related topics now. As of Feb 2020, I haven't, though. ;) Ministry (talk) 22:48, 22 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Lancaster, England population

Hi. Please be careful with population figures. The >100,000 population is actually the population for the entire district, not just the Lancaster bit of it. The Office of National Statistics give a figure for the Lancaster/Morecambe conurbation of 95,521, of which it thinks 45,952 are in Lancaster. As far as I know Morecambe still has an identity as a town, and not just as a suburb. Morwen - Talk 23:10, 25 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Good point, and I agree with the revision, though technically Morecambe isn't an autonomous town. It's 'governed' from Lancaster, and is formally part of the city. More practically, you're right. --Ministry 12:56, 5 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In "District Council" terms, you are correct, of course, but I don't think Morecambe Town Council (or their MP) would agree with your statement. Dbfirs 10:23, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Fair point, but remember Morecambe Town Council has only existed since 2009, so in 2005 I was correct. ;) Ministry (talk) 13:06, 3 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]